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Apple iPhone 4S, A Comprehensive Review

Review Apple’s design language is easily recognisable: clear glass or plastic that’s spray-painted from the inside, a frequent use of aluminium, stainless steel and any colour so long as it’s white or black. But the new iPhone takes this familiarity further, by making the iPhone 4S almost identical to last year’s iPhone 4.

Apple's iPhone 4S: external tweaks are subtle, the main changes are internal

Of course, it’s not the first time this has happened – the 3G was followed by the matching 3GS. But for the millions who had been eagerly anticipating an iPhone 5 since, ooh, June this year, it came as a big disappointment. So, was that disappointment justified or should you upgrade without hesitation? Read on.

The cosmetic differences are few so you won’t need to hear much about the iPhone 4S’s design. It’s the same slim, solid and classy machine with components precision-tooled to the micron, not the millimetre, and the same buttons as every iPhone: a home button, volume, ringer and power buttons.

Some older cases might not fit due to a slight shift of the buttons

One change is the position of the black lines on the steel band that edges the phone. Those black lines are functional, and are indicative of a whole new antenna. This aims to address the dropped calls and spotty signal of last year’s model. Not everyone suffered from a poor signal but if you did, then you’ll be pleased to hear the new set-up works splendidly, giving the iPhone something which performs like one of the strongest antennas around.

So it reliably makes and receives calls – hurrah! Signal strength and battery life, the bare minimum for a phone, are both strong with clear voice quality. Daily charges are still recommended but it won’t need a lie-down by lunchtime, unlike some smarties. So what else is new?

The camera has been overhauled optically and captures stills at 8Mp

The only other cosmetic alteration is situation of the volume buttons and ringer switch. They’ve also moved just enough to mean that some cases, including early editions of Apple’s own bumper, won’t fit. The buttons match the positions on the Verizon iPhone 4 sold in the US and newer bumpers are designed for both versions. But if you’re planning to recycle last year’s case, depending on when you bought it, it may not fit.

Internal affairs

Other changes, and there are several, are all internal. First of all, there’s a new processor. Well, not quite new, it’s the A5 chip found in the iPad 2. Just as it made the second iPad much faster than the first, the peppy A5 ensures the iPhone fast and responsive. Though the iPhone 4 rarely kept you waiting for long, here applications launch in a trice and content is downloaded fast – though this may be partly due to the improved antenna, too.

The A5 CPU has yet to show its strengths with third party apps

The CPU is swift, but its potential has yet to be fully realised yet – Apple promises performance that’s twice as fast but graphics that are seven times better. We need to wait for the improved games apps – that developers are coming up with now – to really notice the difference. Since the iPhone continues to have the one of highest pixel density ratings of any mobile, these visual treats should be worth waiting for.

The camera has also had an upgrade. It’s now 8Mp, which is good but not exceptional. The differentiators come in other forms: where the iPhone 4 had an array of four lenses, the 4S has five, promising sharper detail. The aperture is wider (f2.4) and the sensor has its wiring hidden around the back instead of on the front, where it is on most sensors. Both these aim to suck more light in through the lens, improving picture quality.

Sample Shots

Wide mode – low resolution 

And the processor is no slouch here, either, speeding up autofocus and rapidly readying the snapper for the first shot with subsequent photos captured even more quickly. Features like face recognition, auto exposure and auto focus controlled by one setting are now available. Not all of these are firsts, but they work well.

The new operating system, iOS 5, helps you get snapping more quickly by including a shortcut to the camera from the lock screen. You’ll find a more detailed exploration of the new software, which is also available on the iPhones 4 and 3GS, here.

Vocal performance

Much has been made of Siri, the new key feature launched with the iPhone 4S. It’s not the first voice-recognition application but just as FaceTime was far from the first video calling application, Apple aims to provide the best voice interface. Siri was available in the US App Store already, but those servers no longer respond if you launch that app now. Apple liked the company so much, it bought it, as Victor Kiam used to say.

Siri originally appeared on the App Store until Apple acquired it

So does it work, and do you need it? Well, it mostly works pretty well. Its microphone does best in quiet environments and worst when it’s noisy or you’re trying to show it off to someone. Then it fails to understand what you’ve said.

In the UK, it’s limited for now because mapping and business data doesn’t extend beyond the States, though this will follow. So you can’t ask directions or distances between places as you can in America. Switching to US English and adopting your best accent works splendidly… but only if you’re in the US at the time.

Voice commands can be executed for any number of tasks

It can still do a lot. Say “Text my wife” and it will. First time, of course, you have to tell it which of your contacts is your wife – come on, it’s not psychic – but then it’ll remember. Then dictate your message and it’ll send it. Ask it to remind you to pick up the milk when you leave the office and it’ll use the phone’s location information from GPS and Wi-Fi to ping you a reminder as you walk out the door.

Siri is integrated throughout the phone’s features, and third parties can build functionality into their apps, so its potential may grow quickly. Sometimes it’s quicker to type a message, but for hands-free use when driving, say, it’s decidedly useful. Especially since you can talk to it very freely. Ask if it’s chilly tomorrow and it knows to seek out weather information and comment on whether tomorrow’s temperature qualifies as warm or cold.

The iPhone 5 could be some way off, so it's make your mind up time

Or ask it for share values and you can follow up asking it to compare two stocks. It’s highly sophisticated and though at times it seems to be a glorious, cool gimmick, this will change. One thing that hasn't changed though, is that the iPhone still doesn't offer an FM radio – something that appears on just about all competing smartphones.

Verdict

So should you buy an iPhone 4S? For 3GS users, the answer is an emphatic yes. It’s less clear-cut for iPhone 4 owners, especially if you have a contract to buy your way out of. But if you suffered from poor call quality before, the 4S will restore your faith in the iPhone. Even if you didn’t, the upgraded performance and coolness of Siri and the improved camera are pretty compelling.

If you’re wary of buying the 4S in the belief that a radically different iPhone is on the horizon, the fact is, beyond Infinite Loop, nobody knows – and really, don’t believe anyone who claims otherwise.

Apple's new talker looks the same on the outside, but its dual-core CPU delivers significant changes in capabilities.

Suggested Price: £499 (16GB), £599 (32GB), £699 (64GB)

More Info: Apple's iPhone 4S page

Anonymous Plans to Hit Fox News on November 5

The hactivist group Anonymous plans to take down the Fox News Web site on November 5, according to a new video released recently by the group.

The group said it targeted the network for what it called biased news coverage of the Occupy Wall Street protests occurring in cities across the country.

The network's "continued right-wing, conservative propaganda against the occupations" is the group's catalyst for its intention of "destroying the Fox News Web site," a digitally generated voice on the video explains. "Since they will not stop belittling the occupiers, we will simply shut them down."

The group had earlier vowed to take down Facebook on November 5 as well, although there was some question about the credibility of that threat within the hacktivist group.

The date--November 5--is commonly referred to as Guy Fawkes day in honor of the Brit who tried to blow up parliament in the Gunpowder Plot of 1604. Fawkes was immortalized in "V For Vendetta," a 2006 movie about a freedom fighter who uses terrorist tactics against a totalitarian society, and the mask that Fawkes wears has become a symbol for Anonymous.

Skype lapses allows hacker to track your BitTorrent downloads

Scientists have devised a stealthy and low-cost way to track the internet protocol addresses of tens of thousands of Skype users, and link the information to their online activities such as the sharing of specific files over BitTorrent.

The method, which is laid out in a recently published academic paper, works even when Skype users have configured their accounts to accept calls only from people in their contact lists. It also works against Skype users who aren't currently logged in, as long as they've used the VoIP program in the past three days. The system is able to link an individual Skype user to specific BitTorrent activity, even when they share the IP address with others over a local area network that uses NAT, or network address translation.

“We have shown that it is possible for an attacker, with modest resources, to determine the current IP address of identified and targeted Skype user[s] (if the user is currently active),” the 14-page paper stated. “In the case of Skype, even if the targeted user is behind a NAT, the attacker can determine the user's public IP address. Such an attack could be used for many malicious purposes, including observing a person's mobility or linking the identity of a person to his internet usage.”

The scientists found that it was relatively easy to find the ID of most Skype users when their email address and birth name are known to the attacker. Additional information, such as the target's city of residence, sex, or age, brought greater accuracy to the task.

They then called the target's Skype account using a customized system that sent specially crafted packets. By examining the headers of the data that was returned, they had no trouble determining the person's IP address. Because the scientists prevented a TCP, or transmission control protocol, connection from being fully established during the probing, targets had no idea their Skype accounts were being tracked. The scientists devised the system so that it could track 10,000 people for about $500 per week.

After learning the IP addresses of individuals, the scientists tapped BitTorrent sites to track the specific downloads of addresses in their database. Even when one of the IP addresses was shared among many users on a single network, the method was able to single link a unique Skype user to a specific download by, among other things, collecting identifiers known as infohashes from BitTorrent networks.

The scientists said Google Talk, MSN Live and other real-time communication applications may also be susceptible to the technique, but they singled Skype out for containing what they called “a major privacy vulnerability.”

In a statement, Adrian Asher, chief information security officer in Microsoft's Skype division, said: “We value the privacy of our users and are committed to making our products as secure as possible. Just as with typical internet communications software, Skype users who are connected may be able to determine each other's IP address. Through research and development, we will continue to make advances in this area and improvements to our software.”

The research paper, which is titled I Know Where You are and What You are Sharing, made several recommendations for improving Skype's ability to conceal the identity of its users.

“One solution that would go a long way is to design the VoIP system so that the callee's IP address is not revealed until the user accepts the call,” it stated. “With this property, Alice would not be able to inconspicuously call Bob. Moreover, if Alice is a stranger (that is, not on Bob's contact list), and Bob configures his client to not accept calls from strangers, then this design would prevent any stranger from tracking him, conspicuously or otherwise.”

A PDF of the paper is here.

Nepal Hackers posts 10,000 stolen Facebook accounts online

A hacking group from Nepal known as TeamSwaStika, has published 10,000 stolen Facebook accounts on Pastebin for everyone to see and take advantage of.

The group appears to have obtained the stolen accounting data, through either phishing, or data mining malware-infected hosts for Facebook credentials. Another alternative would be that they have purchased the cache containing the stolen credentials from a specific service reselling accounting data, as these services are quite popular within the cybercrime ecosystem nowadays.

As a precaution, Facebook users are advised to periodically change their passwords from a malware-free host.

Trojan disables Mac's built-in security defences

Malware coders have created a Mac-specific Trojan that is designed to attack anti-malware defences built into Apple's Mac OS X operating system.

The Flashback.C trojan disables the automatic update component of XProtect, OS X's anti-malware application, net security firm F-Secure reports. By wiping out files, the malware prevents future updates, making it more likely that the devilish code will be able to stick around for longer.

The approach mimics a tactic long seen in the world of Windows malware, where attempts to disable security software have been commonplace for years as well as illustrating the growing sophistication of crooks targeting Macs with malware.

"Attempting to disable system defences is a very common tactic for malware — and built-in defences are naturally going to be the first target on any computing platform," F-Secure notes.

The Flashback.C Trojan poses as a Flash Player installer. In reality, the malware sets up a backdoor connection to a remote host. Although currently inactive, the remote host linked to the malware might be used to push any manner of crud onto infected machines.

Previous versions of the Flashback Trojan shunned virtual machines, a technique designed specifically to frustrate anti-virus analysis.

SKDownloader, "Internet Download Manager" Gratis Untuk Linux dan Windows

Dialog Box Berbasis GUI dari Installer SKDownloader

Skdownloader sedang melakukan proses download

Skdownloader di dalam Lubuntu 10.04

Skdownloader terintegrasi di dalam Firefox

Menginstalasi extension skdownloader.xpi di Firefox

Bagi kita yang gemar berburu materi di internet, pasti akrab dengan aplikasi download accelerator seperti Internet Download Manager (IDM) dan Download Accelerator Plus (DAP). Aplikasi-aplikasi tersebut mempunyai fungsi sebagai akselerator proses download yang menghasilkan performa 4-5 X proses download lebih cepat dari kecepatan normal.

Namun, baik IDM maupun DAP merupakan aplikasi untuk lingkungan desktop Windows, dan berbayar (walau tersedia versi trial). Bagi kita pengguna desktop Linux, kali ini tidak perlu lagi merasa cemas, karena telah tersedia aplikasi download accelerator yang sangat mirip degnan IDM, yang bernama skdownloader. Skdownloader adalah aplikasi download accelerator berbasis Java yang mempunyai fungsi sama seperti IDM dan DAP, dan seperti halnya IDM, skdownloader juga bisa di integrasikan dengan Mozilla Firefox dengan menambahkan extension skdownloader.xpi. Sebagai info, Skdownloader juga tersedia dalam versi Windows :)

Sebelum mendownload dan menginstalasi skdownloader, pastikan kita telah mempunyai Java Runtime Environtment dari Oracle atau OpenJDK JRE (versi open source dari platform JRE). Jika belum, pertama-tama harus di instalasi paket JRE.

$ sudo apt-get install icedtea6-plugin (atau bisa memakai versi yang lebih baru jika tersedia, sesuai versi distribusi Linux yang kita pakai). Icedtea6-plugin adalah plugin java untuk browser dan desktop, yang secara otomatis akan menginstalasi juga paket openjdk-6-jre. Untuk pengguna desktop lain silahkan disesuaikan dengan distribusi Linux anda.

Setelah itu barulah kita pergi ke website skdownloader dan mendownload versi Linux dari skdownloader. Installer yang tersedia adalah installer universal dengan ekstensi sh. Setelah di download, dalam kasus saya, saat di eksekusi, terdapat pesan error mengenai masalah permission file. Agar mau di eksekusi, ubahlah permission file dari paket installer tersebut menjadi executable, dengan perintah sbb :

$ chmod +x skdownloader_linux_installer.sh (tanpa hak akses root)

Setelah itu, eksekusi paket installer tersebut dengan hak user root :

$ sudo ./skdownloader_linux_installer.sh

Setelah di eksekusi, akan muncul dialog instalasi berbasis GUI, yang memberi kita pilihan, akan diletakkan di mana direktori kerja dari aplikasi skdownloader, setelah itu next next dan finish.

Terakhir, install extension skdownloader untuk Mozilla Firefox. Caranya tentu sangat simpel. Download ekstensi bernama skdownloader.xpi (ada di website skdownloader), lalu install. Caranya, buka Firefox dan pergi ke menu Tools>Add-ons lalu di jendela Add-ons, klik pada bagian tombol preferensi (dibagian atas kanan, disebelah kolom search) lalu pilih opsi Install add-on from file. Restart firefox, dan menu skdownloader sudah terintegrasi dengan firefox, dan siap digunakan untuk membantu anda mendownload materi apapun di internet.

Catatan :

( + ) : Secara keseluruhan OK, sangat identik dengan IDM.

( - ) : Karena aplikasi gratis, ada halaman advertising/iklan di bagian bawah. Tapi tidak mengganggu tentu saja, karena programmer kan juga butuh makan, right? :)

Sebagai perbandingan, berikut ini spesifikasi sistem yang saya pakai :

1. Intel Pentium IV 2,4 GHz

2. Memory 512 MB DDR1

3. Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (kernel 2.6.32-21-generic)

4. LXDE (lxsession 0.4.3-0ubuntu1)

4. Mozilla Firefox 8 beta3 (8.0~b3+build1-0ubuntu0)

5. openjdk-6-jre (6b20-1.9.9-0ubuntu1~10.04.2)

Happy Linuxing ! Cheers ! :D

Facebook Scam: FREE Starbucks $50 / $25 Tim Hortons Gift Card

Facebook scammers are once again exploiting ignorant victims with claims of freebies. Anyone who likes coffee shops is a potential victim – whether you like to drink coffee, tea, or hot chocolate, chances are you wouldn’t mind doing so for free for the next few weeks.

This version says something along the lines of “FREE Starbucks $50 Gift Card” or “FREE $25 Tim Hortons Gift Card” followed by a link to a fraudulent website. It also has one of the following descriptions: “To celebrate our 40th Anniversary, we are giving away thousands of $50 Gift Vouchers FREE” or “To celebrate our birthday, we are giving away thousands of $25 Gift Vouchers FREE.”

I saw this scam start spreading over the weekend: some of my fellow Canadian friends were eager to get a free gift card to Tim Hortons (sometimes affectionately referred to as Timmies). Then the scam expanded to include Starbucks, which has locations both in Canada and the US.

Similar to previous Facebook scams, you need to share the link with your Facebook friends before proceeding. The webpage in question tells you this is necessary to get the free voucher.

The scammers’ goal is to drive more traffic towards certain sites. This is how the scammer earns his or her money: a commission for every survey completed, every product purchased, and/or every account compromised. They also use them to spread malware and obtain personal information.

As I've always said, if you see a scam like this one, report it. Then go check your own Wall to make sure you’re not spreading the scam; the sooner you clean it up and unlike the page, the better. You can even contact Facebook Security if you’d like to.

Hackers exposes Citibank CEO's private datas

Hacktivists have published a dossier of personal information on the head of Citigroup in retaliation for the cuffing of protesters at an Occupy Wall Street demo.

Members of a group called CabinCr3w, a hacking gang affiliated with Anonymous, revealed phone numbers, an address, email address and financial information on Vikram Pandit, Citigroup's chief executive officer.

The exposé follows the arrest of a group of anti-capitalist protesters who allegedly sparked a ruckus inside a Citibank branch while withdrawing funds and closing their accounts. About 24 people were detained and charged with criminal trespass on Saturday afternoon, The Wall Street Journal reports.

In a statement, Citibank said only one of the protesters was actually trying to close an account, a request that it said was accommodated. The rest of the group were causing a nuisance and were repeatedly asked to leave before the New York City plod were called.

Last week Citigroup supremo Pandit offered to meet protesters, telling Businessweek that their sentiments were "completely understandable".

CabinCr3w previously published the personal information on the chief executives of JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs. It also published the details of an NYPD officer accused of pepper-spraying Occupy Wall Street protesters.

The Citibank branch hubbub, whatever the rights and wrongs of what actually happened, has spawned a new campaign within the Occupy Wall Street umbrella. Op Take Back is encouraging people to close their accounts at high street banks and deposit their money with credit unions instead.

How to check if Spammers are on your Twitter Account

With so many risks to your accounts and computer on the Web, wouldn't it be nice to know that none of the people you follow on Twitter are adding to those risks? Safego, a Bitdefender product, offers a free service that will scan your Twitter account for suspicious users, links, and messages. It won't take any action without your consent, but it can be set to alert you when a new issue arises. Here's how to get started:

Step 1: Head over to http://safego.bitdefender.com/twitter/

Step 2: Log in with your Twitter account. This means the Web site will not need you to sign up for a new account (hooray!).

Step 3: Authorize Safego when prompted by Twitter.

Step 4: Wait as Safego redirects you back to its site and starts scanning your Twitter friends for any suspicious behavior. The more people you follow; the longer this process will take.

Step 5: Once scanning is complete, check out the Friends link on the top banner (next to the Scan Now button). This will change to reflect how many, if any, of your friends are showing suspicious activity.

Step 6: Click on this Friends link to get a list of flagged friends.

Step 7: From the list that appears, you can choose to "unfollow" or clear your flagged friends.

In the notifications area (link at top, or right-hand side on dashboard) you'll see the alerts that are currently disabled. If you'd like to enable any of these to help protect your Twitter account, click on Settings at the top and choose the alerts that work best for you. Additionally, you can use Safego to scan a Twitter user for suspicious activities before you follow them from the Home dashboard.

Box.net offers 50GB of free cloud storage for iOS

That's the deal being offered by Box.net: 50GB of online storage for anyone who installs the Box.net app on an iPhone, iPod Touch, or Pad. (Sorry, Android users--not sure why you're being left out.) The app itself is free, as is the Personal account you'll be creating. And if you already have an account, merely signing into it gives you that 50GB bump.

The promotion runs through December 2, but you get to keep the 50GB forever. And that space is available anywhere you use your account, not just on your handset or tablet.

In case you're not familiar with it, Box.net is cloud-storage service not unlike Dropbox and SugarSync. After uploading your various documents, media files, and the like, you can easily access them online, share them with others, stream media to a mobile device, and so on.

There's even a new feature that allows iPhone 4S and iPad 2 users to wirelessly stream Box.net files to an Apple TV.

Now for the bad news: although it's easy to enough to select files and folders to upload to your account, you must do so using a Web interface or your iDevice (which is limited to uploading photos).

There's a Dropbox-like Box Sync client for Windows and Mac, but it's available only to those who purchase Business or Enterprise accounts.

The lack of desktop syncing does limit Box.net's appeal, no doubt about it, but it's hard to complain too much about 50GB of free storage. (OK, I'll complain a little: come on, Box.net, this really limits your appeal!)

What do you think? Is Box.net worth having even without a desktop-sync option? Or is the hassle of having to upload files manually too great?

Norton blocks Facebook as Phishing Site

Symantec has withdrawn an update to its Norton consumer security software that branded Facebook a phishing site on Wednesday.

The snafu meant that users of Norton Internet Security were blocked from accessing the social networking site and were told a "fraudulent web page" had been blocked, as illustrated in a discussion thread on Symantec's support forums here.

While wags might joke that Facebook is all about persuading punters to supply personal information to a website that ought not to be trusted, it's a bit of a stretch to even compare Zuckerberg's Reservation to a fraudulent banking site. Symantec responded to the problem within hours. From the looks of support forum postings affected users were left dazed and confused rather than seriously inconvenienced or aggrieved by the screw-up.

Security firms update their signature definition files to detect either rogue applications or questionable websites at increasing frequency in order to keep up with malware production rates. Plenty of effort is put into the quality assurance process across the industry but even so mistakes sometimes occur. False positives are a cross-industry problem that affects all vendors.

Sony: 93,000 PlayStation, SOE gamers' accounts cracked

Sony said today it had locked down 93,000 user accounts on its online gaming and entertainment networks after detecting a large number of unauthorized attempts to gain access to the accounts.

Intruders "using very large sets of sign-in IDs and passwords" had brief access to 60,000 accounts on the PlayStation Network and Sony Entertainment Network and another 33,000 accounts on Sony Online Entertainment's servers, Sony said.

The attacks occurred from Friday through Monday and affected "less than one-tenth of 1 percent" of PSN, SEN, and SOE consumers, Sony said in a statement. Hackers succeeded in verifying sign-in IDs and passwords, but Sony said credit card information was "not at risk" during the attack. Sony locked the accounts after confirming the attempts were unauthorized.

"In this case, given that the data tested against our network consisted of sign-in ID-password pairs, and that the overwhelming majority of the pairs resulted in failed matching attempts, it is likely the data came from another source and not from our Networks," Sony Chief Information Security Officer Philip Reitinger said on the PlayStation blog.

The compromised accounts also "showed additional activity prior to being locked," but that information has not been detailed. "We are continuing to investigate the extent of unauthorized activity on any of these accounts," Sony said.

Reitinger somewhat hinted at what the "additional activity" could be: "We will work with any users whom we confirm have had unauthorized purchases made to restore amounts in the PSN/SEN or SOE wallet."

Sony is actively sending e-mails to affected consumers who have locked accounts and is requiring them to perform a secure password reset.

PSN hacking is a sensitive subject for many following a month of outages earlier this year that were ultimately pegged to cyberbattacks.

The sheer scope of the recent hacking scandal, which compromised the personal information of millions of gamers--was a huge smudge on the public perception of the gaming network. In the damage-control department, Sony issued multiple apologies and the promise of a strengthened network, along with giving affected users a $1 million identity theft insurance policy and free games. It also gave all PSN members affected by the outage access to PlayStation Plus for a month.

Says Who?

Having met Nicky Kinnaird many years ago, I know her to be a very smart woman building a terrific business founded on deep personal beliefs and thus I'm willing to accept the statement as true.

But I was a bit bemused to see this in the window of a Space NK store. Does the attribution make it more credible? The stores are the physical incarnation of her philosophy - so those who know what NK stands for will not need to be convinced while others will wonder who Nicky Kinnaird is.

It seems to me to be a form of celebrity endorsement in the eyes of her marketers, but does it weaken the advice? After all, she's not Japanese. Wouldn't modest anonymity be more in line with the slow organic growth of the business? Or does it just jar with me because I'm someone who knows the story rather than a potential customer?

Google Unveils Dart, an alternative to Javascript

Google today launched an "early preview" of Dart, a programming language the company hopes will help Web application programmers overcome shortcomings of JavaScript that Google itself feels acutely.

Programmer and project leader Lars Bak detailed the project in a talk today at the Goto conference conference today in Denmark and in a blog post. Dart is geared for everything from small, unstructured projects to large, complicated efforts--Gmail and Google Docs, for example.

"If we want to focus on making the Web better over time, we have to innovate," including with new programming languages, Bak said in an interview today.

Google also unveiled a Dart language site including open-source tools for writing Dart programs, code samples and tutorials, supporting libraries of supporting software, the Dart language specification, and forums for discussion.

Google is a big company, though, and others within the company remain strong JavaScript adherents. And Bak, while not denying Google has big ambitions, was quick to proclaim JavaScript alive and well.

"It's not going to replace JavaScript," Bak said. "JavaScript is is a cornerstone of the Web today, and it will continue to be for a long, long time."

Bak bristled at some of complaints about Google's approach to creating Dart in-house and not through a more collaborative approach.

"I don't buy the argument that before writing any line of code or designing any features, you put it in a standards committee, because that would just be a lot of screaming," Bak said. "You have to have coherent design before you start adopting Dart as a standard."

Making a standard is a goal, though. "It will be fairly lonely to create a standards committee when here's only us in it. We first have to get the backing of other partners before we can make a standard that's useful," he said.

Google is releasing Dart now for the next step in its maturation: outside feedback and participation. "We hope the other browser vendors will be excited," Bak said, adding that today is the first that Google has shared details about Dart with them or others.

Google is evaluating the best way to integrate Dart directly into its Chrome browser, something Bak is keen on. One reason: it will enable a "snapshotting" technology that dramatically improves a Web app's start-up time. Snapshotting involves taking an application and "serializing" it into a single block of data.

In one test of snapshotting, a 55,000-line Dart program loaded in 60 milliseconds compared to 640 milliseconds without it, Bak said. A conventional JavaScript program would load in comparable time as Dart without snapshotting, he said. "I can see a lot of optimizations that 'll be applicable to Dart" when it's integrated directly into a browser, he added.

Here's Bak's quick description of Dart:

Dart's design goals are:

• Create a structured yet flexible language for Web programming.

• Make Dart feel familiar and natural to programmers and thus easy to learn.

• Ensure that Dart delivers high performance on all modern Web browsers and environments ranging from small handheld devices to server-side execution.

Dart targets a wide range of development scenarios: from a one-person project without much structure to a large-scale project needing formal types in the code to state programmer intent. To support this wide range of projects, Dart has optional types; this means you can start coding without types and add them later as needed. We believe Dart will be great for writing large web applications.

Dart programs will be able to run within a Dart virtual machine--essentially a layer of software that acts as a computer to execute programs. They'll also be able to run using a compiler that translates Dart code into JavaScript code for browsers that don't support Dart, Bak said.

Google's Chrome browser has served as a vehicle to get the company's technology such as WebM and SPDY useful for at least a portion of Web users. Though the 2010 Dart/Dash memo said Google planned build Dart support into Chrome, Bak was cautious about making any definite statements beyond saying browser integration brings benefits. It's notable, though, that Bak led development of Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine, so he's hardly a stranger to the Chrome team or to the challenges of improving Web-app speed.

Building Dart into Chrome could let Google build Dart versions of its advanced Web apps that--if the language lives up to its billing--could be better than those Web apps today.

"Google has a lot fairly big Web applications. That includes Gmail and Docs. I hope many of these apps will be converted into Dart," Bak said--but cautioned that was his personal option, not an explicit plan.

Introducing new programming languages is tough. Though many hope that computing can improve by reforming or replacing languages, the incumbent power of existing languages is strong. Educating thousands or millions of programmers, building developer tools, and creating supporting libraries of code all can take years. As newer languages such as Java, JavaScript, and C# attest, though, it is possible.

Google also is trying to gain a foothold for Go, a programming language geared more for native software that today would most likely be written with C or C++.

Dart is designed to address several shortcomings Google sees with Web programming today, according to the Dart technical overview:

• Small scripts often evolve into large web applications with no apparent structure--they're hard to debug and difficult to maintain. In addition, these monolithic apps can't be split up so that different teams can work on them independently. It's difficult to be productive when a Web application gets large.

• Scripting languages are popular because their lightweight nature makes it easy to write code quickly. Generally, the contracts with other parts of an application are conveyed in comments rather than in the language structure itself. As a result, it's difficult for someone other than the author to read and maintain a particular piece of code.

• With existing languages, the developer is forced to make a choice between static and dynamic languages. Traditional static languages require heavyweight toolchains and a coding style that can feel inflexible and overly constrained.

• Developers have not been able to create homogeneous systems that encompass both client and server, except for a few cases such as Node.js and Google Web Toolkit (GWT).

• Different languages and formats entail context switches that are cumbersome and add complexity to the coding process.

The priority right now is to hear what the rest of the world thinks and to get them participating in Dart's development, Bak said.

"At this point it is mostly the language we are focused on," he said. "We hope to get positive feedback on the language."

Apple co-founder, Chairman Steve Jobs dies at 56

Steve Jobs, Apple's cofounder and former CEO, has died. He was 56 years old.

His death was reported late Wednesday in a brief statement on Apple's website. Apple's homepage featured a black-and-white photo of Jobs with a closely trimmed beard bearing his name and the years 1955-2011.

"Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being," a statement by Apple said. "Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple."

Arguably the most influential and charismatic leader in the history of an industry stocked with high-profile personalities, Jobs created then later transformed Apple into a consumer electronics giant that redefined product elegance and ease of use.

Having both publicly and privately battled serious health problem for years, Jobs' death was not unexpected.

In August 2004 he revealed that he had a rare but survivable islet cell neuroendocrine tumor removed from his pancreas. At that time he told Apple employees that he would return in September. He did.

In January 2009, Jobs released an open letter in which he said that his severe weight loss – which had been "a mystery to me and my doctors" – had been discovered to be a "hormone imbalance".

Just over a week later, however, Jobs began a second medical leave of absence. In an email message addressed to "Team", he wrote: "I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought."

In June of that year, a spokesman for a Tennessee organ-transplant center confirmed that Jobs had received a liver transplant in April. Jobs returned to Apple on a part-time basis at the end of June, and in September he appeared at an iPod-introduction event, where he told the crowd: "I'm vertical, I'm back at Apple, and loving every minute of it."

During the later half of 2010, however, it became clear that Jobs' health was deteriorating. In January 2011, he began what was to be his third and final medical leave.

Jobs never returned to day-to-day duties at Apple – although he appeared to relish his appearances at the iPad 2 and iCloud roll-outs, over which he presided in his familiar black-turtleneck-and-jeans public personna.

During this third leave of absence, as with the first two, Apple's COO Tim Cook took the reins as acting CEO. Apple's board of directors, at Jobs' urging, named Cook CEO when Jobs resigned in August.

In his letter of resignation, Jobs wrote: "I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you."

Jobs was nothing if not a polarizing figure, but any honest member of the consumer-technology industry must thank him for the many years of being able to work alongside the mercurial visionary.

Adopted son of Paul and Clara Jobs, Steven Paul Jobs was born to Joanne Schieble and Abdulfattah Jandali. He leaves his wife of 20 years, Laurene Powell Jobs, and children Lisa, Reed, Erin, and Eve.

                                                                             R.I.P

India launches Aakash, World’s Cheapest Tablet Computer

India has launched what it says is the world's cheapest touch-screen tablet computer, priced at just $35 (£23).

Costing a fraction of Apple's iPad, the subsidised Aakash is aimed at students.

It supports web browsing and video conferencing, has a three-hour battery life and two USB ports, but questions remain over how it will perform.

Officials hope the computer will give digital access to students in small towns and villages across India, which lags behind its rivals in connectivity.

At the launch in the Indian capital, Delhi, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal handed out 500 Aakash (meaning sky) tablets to students who will trial them.

He said the government planned to buy 100,000 of the tablets. It hopes to distribute 10 million of the devices to students over the next few years.

"The rich have access to the digital world, the poor and ordinary have been excluded. Aakash will end that digital divide," Mr Sibal said.

The Aakash has been developed by UK-based company DataWind and Indian Institute of Technology (Rajasthan).

It is due to be assembled in India, at DataWind's new production centre in the southern city of Hyderabad.

"Our goal was to break the price barrier for computing and internet access," DataWind CEO Suneet Singh Tuli said.

"We've created a product that will finally bring affordable computing and internet access to the masses."

The company says it will also offer a commercial version of the tablet, called UbiSlate. It is expected to hit the shelves later this year, retailing for about $60.

Usability questions

Mr Sibal says the device will enhance learning in India.

Experts say it does have the potential to make a huge difference to the country's education, particularly in rural areas where schools and students do not have access to libraries and up-to-date information.

But critics say it is too early to say how the Aakash will be received as most cheap tablets in the past have turned out to be painfully slow.

"The thing with cheap tablets is most of them turn out to be unusable," Rajat Agrawal of technology reviewers BGR India said.

"They don't have a very good touch screen, and they are usually very slow."

Critics also point out that an earlier cheap laptop plan by the same ministry came to nothing.

In 2009, it announced plans for a laptop priced as low as $10, raising eyebrows and triggering worldwide media interest.

But there was disappointment after the "Sakshat" turned out to be a prototype of a hand-held device, with an unspecified price tag, that never materialised.

Anonymous Twitter alternative developed for rioters

After discovering that BBM and their Twittery playthings fed straight into the hands of the cops, smartphone-toting revolutionaries have taken up a new type of instant messaging – Vibe.

Like Twitter in that it is open and lets you mass-message, Vibe is unlike Twitter in that all messages or "vibes" are anonymous. You can set how far you want them to be available too – from 15 metres to global.

The messages self-destruct after a set period of time: from 15 minutes to forever. That makes it much more attractive to those who want to bring down the Man via the medium of street protest, but don't want the Man, or their mothers, or the police looking at twitpics of themselves jumping up and down on burning bin-bags.

According to the New York papers, Vibe is now the instant messaging app of choice for the protesters at Manhattan's #OccupyWallStreet.

Though it is innocently described on the iTunes store as a good way to chat to other people near you at football games or conferences, developer Hazem Sayed, who is based in New York, is actively keen for his app to be adopted by the protesters.

It seems to be catching on:

The NY Daily News interviewed protester Drew Hornbein, a member of the camp's Internet Committee, who explained its uses to the paper:

"Let's say you're protesting and someone up ahead sees that the cops are getting ready to kettle people, they can send out this vibe that only lasts a few minutes that says, 'Cops are kettling'," said Hornbein.

"It's anonymous too, so not only are you able to send out relevant information to a small radius, but it also disappears, there's no record of it, so no one can come after the person who sent it."

Another social media platform for Theresa May to worry about.

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How to Get SoundCloud Followers

Occasional Partial Attention.

Last year, lots of people seemed to be blown away by the whole concept of the second screen. At this year's event, there were inaccurate murmurings that nothing new had been said. Such is the nature of media industry audiences - always looking for the radical when they should be dealing with the every day.

But 2 screen is nothing new. We rarely, if ever, focussed entirely on the TV or anything else. The new thing is that the second screen is, in fact, a screen. In the past, we all experienced multiple input sources, but the second screen back then was radio, music or print.

Media folk are excited that the second screen experience has interactive potential, but if they listened to Starling TV's CEO they'd have noted that the 90-9-1 rule abides. 90% of second screen "viewers" are viewing that second screen passively and, I would contend, casually.

Nothing's really changed. Attention has always been partial and occasional - the question that marketers have to answer is, as ever, how to be interesting and relevant so that you get that attention when the opportunity arises.

Just a thought, a fleeting one.

Google Map 3D Now Shows You Helicopter View

Google is adding a new "helicopter view" option for directions in Google Maps, enabling you to see your trip from above in full 3D glory. Google is making use of its Earth view engine for this and it's a great way of both making people aware that they can see 3D content in Google Maps but also a way making trip planning more fun.

"Getting directions is one of the most popular features on Google Maps, whether it be for driving, walking, biking or transit," Paul Yang, a Google Maps engineer, wrote.

"Today, we are launching a new feature that allows you to bring your upcoming trip to life, by allowing you to preview your route in 3D," he announced.

The feature is now available to all users, but you need the Earth view plugin to make use of it. Enabling the feature is easy. Just plan out a route, like usual.

You'll see the regular directions page, but there is now a 3D button next to the starting point. Hitting it will switch from the 2D map view to the 3D Earth view.

Then you'll be able to follow along as your trip is played back via the 3D engine. You can pause it at any moment and then move around, zoom in and check out the view from different angles.

You can also jump directly to another part of the trip by clicking on any step from the list on the left. Of course, once you're done, you can switch back to the 2D view by clicking on the 2D button.

The big caveat is that you have to install the Google Earth plugin for any of this to work. The plugin is available for most browsers on Windows, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Mac OS X, Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox. Linux users are out of luck.